WEEKLY MESSAGE February 11, 2018

A few months ago, I wrote a bulletin letter in which I spoke about the need for the Christian community to ask, “Why?” during times of grief and distress and claimed that it is through our very questioning of God’s doings in our world that the Christian community grows in faith. This week, as we approach Lent, a liturgical season in which we are supposed to reflect ever more deeply upon our spiritual lives, I shall make a claim that, while similar to that which I made back in October, goes a step further: doubt is an essential ingredient to a healthy faith life.

Many, many Christians of all stripes fear doubt. I have had numerous conversations over the years with people who express a genuine and deeply‐seated fear that, if they even for a moment doubt the truth claims of their religion, they will either lose credibility with their faith community; badly weaken their relationship with God; or even lose their faith altogether.
Doubt and faith, in the above worldview, are like water and oil, totally incompatible. While the first of the above fears is sadly well‐founded in many Christian circles‐‐there are indeed many church communities that will ostracize any of its members who expresses even a shred of doubt concerning the theological, moral, and metaphysical claims of said community‐‐the idea that doubt and faith are antithetical could not be farther from the truth. A faith life that is completely devoid of doubt is no life at all, but rather a non‐life. I vividly recall a conversation with an uncle of mine in which he stated that he could not bring himself to contemplate the mystery of the Eucharist because he feared that if he did so, he would lose his faith in the admittedly strange claim that it is the physical presence of the Precious Body and Blood of Christ. The tragic irony of my uncle’s comment is that, through his very fear of losing his faith in the Eucharist, he is actually distancing himself from it, placing it upon a pedestal to gather dust instead of engaging it in an active, vivacious, if doubt‐filled relationship.

An Old Testament professor of mine from seminary once stated, “If you believe that there is only one true and infallible interpretation of the Bible, then you don’t need the Bible at all.” The more I reflect upon my professor’s claim, the more I realize the vast amount of truth packed into that one statement. Indeed, if the contents and claims of Scripture are already undoubtedly known, then why continue to engage with Scripture? Do we not engage and question that of which we are less sure rather than that which is already completely known and thus closed? Similarly, if there is no shred of doubt about the nature of God, then why bother entering into relationship with God? Indeed, a God that is undoubtedly known is a mere idol crafted in our image, fit only to set upon a pedestal and gather dust, but a God that is veiled in doubt and mystery is much more like the God with a human face named Jesus of Nazareth. So this Lent, I pray that we will set aside our fear and enter into the desert of doubt, if only for a time, for it is in this desert that we encounter Christ. And through this doubt‐filled encounter, our faith will grow.